Rams have golden opportunity to bring back CB Darious Williams

It was perfectly reasonable that the Los Angeles Rams let Darious Williams leave in free agency two years ago. He signed a $30 million deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars, returning to the city where he was born and raised.

Williams struggled in his first season with the Jaguars but he was great last year, intercepting four passes with a career-best 19 passes defensed to go along with two forced fumbles. Coming off that standout season, the Rams have a golden opportunity to reunite with the talented cornerback.

The Jaguars are releasing Williams in a cap-saving move, giving them more room to tag Josh Allen and potentially re-sign Calvin Ridley. Williams will become a free agent and the Rams should be among the teams interested in signing him.

Now 30 years old, Williams won’t command a deal like the one he signed in 2022. He’ll probably earn less than the $10 million per year he was making in Jacksonville and he may even settle for a one-year pact.

If Los Angeles can get him for around $5-7 million for one season, it should be a no-brainer. Williams was one of the most underrated cornerbacks in 2020 when he picked off four passes and allowed just 504 yards in coverage, and he played similarly well in 2023 after a couple of subpar seasons in 2021 and 2022.

According to PFF, he gave up a completion rate of just 59.3% in coverage last season, allowing a passer rating of only 69.6. His coverage grade of 85.3 was the fourth-best of any cornerback in the NFL.

At 5-foot-9 and 187 pounds, he’s by no means a physically imposing or highly athletic cornerback. But where Williams makes his money is with his instincts and ball skills. He plays the ball like a wide receiver and when afforded the chance to drop back in zone coverage, he uses his eyes to read the quarterback and break on the ball.

He’s incredibly smart, too, as evidenced by this play in the postseason against the Seahawks, reading the screen pass like a book and picking it off for six points.

He proved last season that he didn’t lose those impressive traits in Jacksonville. Against the Falcons, he perfectly read Desmond Ridder and beat the receiver to his spot on an in-breaking route, returning the interception for a touchdown.

The following week against Buffalo, he tracked the deep ball by Josh Allen and took it away from the receiver, hauling it in for a spectacular interception.

Despite not having the beset speed or prototypical height for the position, Williams simply makes plays on the ball and comes up with takeaways. That’s something the Rams could use in the secondary.

Ahkello Witherspoon had three interceptions last season, but he’ll be a free agent this month. Derion Kendrick had one pick in what was a disappointing season, and he’s hardly certain to start in 2024. Those were the only two Rams cornerbacks with interceptions last season. Williams had as many as all of the Rams’ corners combined.

He’d be a low-risk signing for a team in desperate need of cornerback help, and it certainly wouldn’t prevent them from adding another corner or two in the draft.

Story originally appeared on Rams Wire